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A review by pixe1
Void Star by Zachary Mason
3.0
I took this out from the library a couple of months ago. It's been sitting on my shelf unread, having renewed it 3 times. The GR synopsis was not appealing to be, probably because the climate dystopia aspect is billed upfront and I've read a few too many books where that theme goes south.
Anyway, I was ready to return it to the library this week, when it turned up on the Tournament of Books longlist and I figured I should read it, instead of returning it and taking it out for 2 more months again.
I'm glad I read this. It's more highbrow than the plot summary led me to guess and for the first 2/3s, I could hear the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack. In fact, I felt it shared a lot of similarities with Blade Runner, including the dark atmosphere, near future dystopia, strong focus on character development, memory and humanity "vs." AIs.
Compared with last year's ToB, this book felt like a strong analogue for the spot that was filled by Version Control. Like that book (and like Blade Runner!) the plot for much of this book feels like a slow burn, and I kept hoping for the a-ha moment I felt reading last year's entry. But for the last 1/3 of the book, the story felt like nothing more than an updated version of Neuromancer. While that story may not have aged well, modernising it did not feel totally original. So a strong start was finished off by a bit of a let-down.
Anyway, I was ready to return it to the library this week, when it turned up on the Tournament of Books longlist and I figured I should read it, instead of returning it and taking it out for 2 more months again.
I'm glad I read this. It's more highbrow than the plot summary led me to guess and for the first 2/3s, I could hear the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack. In fact, I felt it shared a lot of similarities with Blade Runner, including the dark atmosphere, near future dystopia, strong focus on character development, memory and humanity "vs." AIs.
Compared with last year's ToB, this book felt like a strong analogue for the spot that was filled by Version Control. Like that book (and like Blade Runner!) the plot for much of this book feels like a slow burn, and I kept hoping for the a-ha moment I felt reading last year's entry. But for the last 1/3 of the book, the story felt like nothing more than an updated version of Neuromancer. While that story may not have aged well, modernising it did not feel totally original. So a strong start was finished off by a bit of a let-down.